Ok ok, last week (or before), I promised I'd have up a full, detailed post with my take on EVE Online. Well, here it is, finally...

I'll start off by saying the game is great. If you want an open game, where you can do anything, go anywhere, with little or no direction, and such - EVE will give you that for sure. Most of space is minimally controlled or uncontrolled, so you can shoot at anyone you like, anytime you like. Heck you can even do that in controlled space if you don't mind it being a suicide mission. The cops will shoot you down, but if you have big enough guns you can kill your target first. ;)

The game does have a steep learning curve. There's thousands of places to go, and no vectored/funneled direction like most of the fantasy MMOs have. There's also the whole, vast skill system. You need skills to be effective, and you need certain skills to even fly certain ships, and to use equipment you'll want to place on said ships. Training takes a LONG time in most cases - but you can train whether you're offline or online. You just add skills to the queue and they take as long as they take, and it ticks off no matter what you're doing, and even if you're offline. It's really easy to get into a loop where you say "Ok, I want to fly 'x' ship with 'z' modules fitted", then queue the skills you lack, and just tell yourself "Ok, I'll play for real once that's done." And then never do it, cause you decide to get different skills.

I feel EVE is a game you really need to focus on - it needs to be your only game, and you need a bit of time even at that. If you're a 1-2 hour a day player, it's probably not going to be as cool for you. But, if you're a 5-6 hour a day player, and EVE's your only game, you'll probably find it awesome!

I'm a 1-2-3, maybe sometimes 4 or 5 hour a day player - but my primary game is EQ2 as I love the game, and play it with my wife... So EVE ended up not being as fulfilling for me. I need something as secondary game, where I can log in, do something fun, and just be able to log out when my wife's ready for EQ2 action. EVE doesn't fit that... at all. For me.

Age of Conan however does, but that's a subject for another day!